Metro Ethernet

Ethernet Access and Frame Relay Comparison

Frame Relay VPN services have been widely accepted and have proven to be very cost effective compared to point-to-point private-line service. In essence, Ethernet services can be considered the next-generation of Frame Relay because they provide most of the benefits of Frame Relay with better scalability as far as providing higher bandwidth and multipoint-to-multipoint connectivity services. The following list shows some of the similarities and dissimilarities between an Ethernet and a Frame Relay service:

• Interface speed— Frame Relay interface speeds range from sub-T1 rates up to OCn speeds. However, Frame Relay has been widely deployed at the lower sub-T1, T1, and DS3 speeds. An Ethernet interface ...